Time to stand up for your fishing, diving, and spearfishing rights. There is a current proposal to eliminate spearfishing and anchoring on grays reef. No spearfishing but hook and line will stay. The reasoning is that spearfisherman get big fish!
Please join me to voice your concerns Monday Nov 17 630 PM Town and Country Inn and Conference Center 2008 Savannah Hwy Charleston S.C.
Gray’s Reef plan proposed Public hearings have been scheduled on a draft management plan for Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, located 17.5 nautical miles off Sapelo Island, Ga.The five-year management plan is required by the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.New rules proposed in the plan include a ban on anchoring in the sanctuary, and a change in fishing regulations to allow fishing only with rod and reel and handline gear.
The first meeting will be Monday, Nov. 17 at the Town and Country Inn and Conference Center in Charleston, S.C.
If this goes through it will set a scary precedent for taking away our fishing and spearfishing rights. I will be attending this meeting on monday. I am printing out all the emails i receive to present to them.
They are not taking away your spear-fishing rights, they’re ammending the legislation regarding management of the reefs. Your comment on spearfishermen taking only big fish is the exact reason they’re banning spearfishing in the area. Shooting the larger, sexually mature fish will obviously reduce or deplete the stock of fish that you are targeting. Your spearfishing and conventional means of fishing are not being taken away. Tighter restrictions on use of the Marine Protected Area are being implemented to protect this jewel so we can all enjoy it for years to come.
First let me start by saying that I love to rod and reel fish as well as spearfish. Spearfishing allows the participant to visit and gain an appreciation for the environment in which he is harvesting. It allows for the selective harvest of game with virtually no bycatch of unwanted or undersized fish. Although I find spearfishing more enjoyable than hook and line fishing, I find it to be a less productive means of harvesting fish. Many hook and line fishermen think that spearfishermen can simply swim over to any desirable fish and assassinate it. That is simply not true; game fish (and particularly larger specimens) are very wary of divers - particularly SCUBA divers with the noisy bubbles that they emit.
How would you feel if they regulate all fishing allowed there without proper studies being done? If the breeding stocks are in trouble then of course the they should be protected (They have done no legitimate studies to show this). But why are they going to take the group with the smallest impact on the reef and ban their activities? The factual evidence is that hook and line fishing is more productive on average than spearfishing, and less than 1% of all fish harvested are taken by spearfishing. Spearfishermen are more educated about the ocean, require formal training, have a bigger investment, and more difficulty in their sport. Spearfishing leaves no dangerous litter in the marine environment.
Spearfishing promotes “Discreet Hunting” conservation. Discreet Hunting leaves unwanted fish completely unharmed and un-traumatized. Hook and line fishing has by far more unintentional mortality.
The bottom line:
If you need to limit fish harvests to protect stocks, limit them equally for everybody! Do not take away spearfishing!
I’m going to agree with you Ghost. I’m in the NRA. And while I dont think its necessary for civilians to have assault rifles and armor piercing bullets, I do think we should always be able to own guns. Its the whole concept of “give and inch, and they take a mile” with the government.
So, in closing, I dont spearfish, but I surely would oppose the ban because I believe paves an easier path for more restrictions.
GR is not saying that spearfishermen get bigger fish. He is saying that is the rationale of the people amending the legislation. You are way off base noebocehn. With no basis what-so-ever they are singling out an extremely small group. If there is a problem with the stock situation then that should be addressed and amended globally within the sanctuary. Picking on a few spearfishermen well within legal limits of recreational catch is wrong. Les
Ghostrider… I am so glad to see that someone is standing up for what is right. It’s amazing how people who have no idea about a subject…like spearfishing, as well as other things in life…somehow have the authority to make comments and decisions on the subject. It seems only fair that a person should be made to understand a subject before he can comment upon it. Why do people always have to put in their two cents worth of ignorance? Anyone with any understanding about spearfishing would know that the sport is very small with only a tad of impact on the fish. BUT…those without the knowledge or the EXPERIENCE seem to talk the loudest. So Ghostrider…maybe it’s on your shoulders as well as ours, to inform the un-informed so they can make proper decisions. Keep it up Fellow Brother Under the Water.